Software Engineer, Scaling

Build AI
San Francisco, California, United StatesFull-timePosted Aug 30, 2026

About the role

About Build AI

Build AI is the data hyperscaler for Physical AI. We co-design hardware, collection, infrastructure, and research to scale the physical labor dataset orders of magnitude faster than anyone in the world.

Job Summary

We’re hiring a software engineer to build the products the on-the-ground scaling teams live in. Your users are the people standing up collection in factories and job sites. If a site cannot collect more tomorrow because the software is in the way — tasking, device health, local tooling, site standup — that is on you.

Key Responsibilities

Build internal products for collection ops: tasking, site standup, device inventory, shift tracking, and local tooling that works with bad connectivity

Sit with ops and watch where they lose hours; ship software that removes it, then measure hours of useful collection per person

Make standing up a new site or country a repeatable product, not a custom process each time

Produce site-health views: what’s recording, what’s failing, what’s stuck in upload — so field leads and SF engineering share one picture

Work with data infrastructure and marketplace incentives so field tools connect to ingest and pay

Travel or embed with field teams when that is what it takes to get the product right

You may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications)

Strong generalist software engineer who likes shipping product for operators, not only backend services

Comfortable with messy real-world ops and 0→1 tools

Fine traveling or working closely with field teams

You measure success in whether scaling teams scale harder, not in polished abstractions

Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)

Time spent embedded with field, ops, logistics, or deployment teams

Experience standing up tools in new sites or countries

Marketplace, incentive, or ops-product background

Linux/Python and comfort debugging hardware-adjacent field issues

Benefits

Competitive pay

Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage

$500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits

Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office

Relocation support for those moving to San Francisco (Financial District) or Shenzhen (Nanshan)

Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more

Daily lunch and dinner in our office

Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification

Travel

How we're different

Build believes in the Bitter Lesson. By taking a general approach of learning from humans, our addressable market is all physical labor.

We are a fully in-person team in San Francisco (Financial District) and Shenzhen (Nanshan), and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.

Build AI is an equal opportunity employer. We review every application. If you do not meet every bullet, still apply. Questions: research@build.ai

Responsibilities

  • Build internal products for collection ops: tasking, site standup, device inventory, shift tracking, and local tooling that works with bad connectivity
  • Sit with ops and watch where they lose hours; ship software that removes it, then measure hours of useful collection per person
  • Make standing up a new site or country a repeatable product, not a custom process each time
  • Produce site-health views: what’s recording, what’s failing, what’s stuck in upload
  • Work with data infrastructure and marketplace incentives so field tools connect to ingest and pay
  • Travel or embed with field teams when that is what it takes to get the product right

Qualifications

  • Strong generalist software engineer who likes shipping product for operators, not only backend services
  • Comfortable with messy real-world ops and 0→1 tools
  • Fine traveling or working closely with field teams
  • You measure success in whether scaling teams scale harder, not in polished abstractions

Benefits

  • Competitive pay
  • Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
  • $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
  • Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office
  • Relocation support for those moving to San Francisco (Financial District) or Shenzhen (Nanshan)
  • Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
  • Daily lunch and dinner in our office
  • Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification
  • Travel

Skills mentioned

PythonLinuxDebuggingBackend DevelopmentFrontend DevelopmentAPI IntegrationSQLSystem DesignData PipelinesDatabase Design